| Aboriginal Indian race | 1,028,000 |
| Mestizos, or mixed blood | 560,000 |
| Whites | 215,000 |
The remainder was composed of negroes and blended nationalities.
The relative number of inhabitants in the different political divisions of the country was:
| Department | Inhabitants |
|---|---|
| Chuquisaca | 196,434 |
| El Beni | 25,680 |
| Oruro | 86,081 |
| Tarija | 67,887 |
| Cochabamba | 326,163 |
| Santa Cruz | 171,592 |
| Potosi | 325,615 |
| La Paz | 426,930 |
| Territory of Colonias | 7,228 |
| 1,633,610 | |
| Not enumerated | 182,661 |
| Total | 1,816,271 |
A curious circumstance is the even ratio of the sexes. Of the 1,633,610 enumerated population, the males were 819,247 and the females 814,363. The Indian woman fills so important a function in the industrial economy of the country that her numerical standing is of consequence.
This census of 1900 showed that the foreigners domiciled in Bolivia were few. The total was 7,400, and it was made chiefly of Argentinos, Peruvians, and Chileans. The Europeans—Italians, Spanish, Germans, French, Austrians, and English—numbered 1,500. Substantially it might be said the Republic up to the present is without a foreign population large enough to influence its national character and development. The native inhabitants are the economic element of growth.
The whites are of Spanish origin. The cholos are more Indian than Spanish, but they have shown considerable capacity for civilization and progress. The Indians are very largely the Aymará race. Possibly one-fourth may be of Quichua stock, but certainly not more. Included in this aboriginal people are a large number of unclassified Indian tribes, and some of these, particularly the savages, have no affiliation with Aymarás or Quichuas. The number of savages is placed at 91,000, though that is hardly more than an estimate. They are found in the river regions of the East and Northeast. The Quichuas are in the South along the Argentine border, and in the North along Lake Titicaca. The great central belt is Aymará, and the mixed blood there is Aymará and Spanish, somewhat more virile than the Spanish Quichuas.
The Aymarás, though conquered by Spain and recognizing that they were vanquished, have resisted absolutely the imposition of more than the thin layer of Caucasian civilization upon them. They are said to have aspirations for independence, but the uprisings which have taken place never have been general and usually have been due to local causes. Their most marked characteristic is the tenacity with which they have held to their language. It would seem absurd to say that a majority of the inhabitants of La Paz do not understand Spanish, because their intercourse with the Spanish-speaking classes must be assumed to give them some knowledge of that language, yet some experiences of my own showed that it was useless to depend upon Spanish. In the interior there are a few persons among the Indians who understand the language of the government, but the mass of them resolutely refuse to know it. The wife of a mining engineer, whose camp was only a few miles away from La Paz, told me her experience with the household servants. She had had to acquire enough of the Aymará tongue to give the ordinary household orders, and her children had picked up more, so that they got along very well. But no persuasion had been sufficient to secure the consent of the Aymarás to learn a little Spanish. In other mining camps there was the same difficulty. The miners always master a few phrases of Aymará and get along in that manner.
It is not unusual to hear reports of uprisings, or attempted uprisings, by the Indians. I witnessed one of these occurrences at Guaqui, on Lake Titicaca. The Indians were said to be coming down a thousand strong. But when the local authorities exerted themselves, and made a show of a few extra soldiers, what had been a noisy, drunken demonstration quieted quickly. However, there are instances in which the Indians give trouble, but in most cases the disturbances are purely local. The testimony is that the Indian population is to be feared only during periods of political tumult, when the government is divided into factions, or when one leader is fighting against another leader, and the bonds of authority are loosened. Then there is danger. The Indians make a pretence of joining one faction or the other, but it is only with the purpose of freeing themselves from restraint.
Considering that the European race is relatively so small a part of the population, the Bolivian government has handled the Indian problem very well,—much better than it has been handled in the United States. Without question, the army, which is an army of conscription, has been of great benefit, not only in the military control of the natives, but in the training it gives the Indians and the cholos. Military service is compulsory, but it is evaded by many of the Aymarás, and discriminating state policy does not seek to enforce it too rigidly.